


The Miracle Man

by RobronSugdenDingle



Series: 31 days of Christmas 2019 [5]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Drug Use, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21686629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobronSugdenDingle/pseuds/RobronSugdenDingle
Summary: Robert's sick with an incurable disease and when he's nearing the age of twenty, he starts to feel really down. Aaron plans to make him happy, even going so far as to make a special wish..."Have you ever heard of the Miracle Man?"
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Series: 31 days of Christmas 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559164
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	The Miracle Man

**Author's Note:**

> Here, have *throws story out the window* this!
> 
> I know I'm supposed to be updating the Royals right now and I am!!! But keep in mind that I need to rest aswell...I keep a very very active Robron fan account on insta, use my free time to edit them, write my daily Christmas fics and try and keep my mental health in a positive way. All I ask is patience. Thank you!

  
"Have you ever heard of the Miracle man?"

Robert looked up from his book and raised an eyebrow.

"Who?"

"The miracle man. Apparently...if you wish really hard during the christmas season, he shows up in your sleep and performs a miracle..."

Robert scoffed. 

"Sounds like a fairy tale, no offense"

Aaron shrugged.

"Made you smile didn't it? Mum used to tell me all about it whenever I was sick"

Robert rolled his eyes and returned his eyes to the pages of his book. When Robert was seven, he collapsed In the school playground. At first, the teachers thought he was suffering from asthma, but the doctors dismissed that from Robert. He wasnt suffering from asthma at all...

He collapsed at the school gates the next morning and brought to the doctors again. Was he anaemic? Not really, but give him some iron tablets to take anyway because his iron levels are the slightest bit under.

Eventually, Robert began to collapse further and further away from the school, until he couldn't even make it past his room without feeling dizzy. The doctors had finally come to a conclusion...

They didnt know what the hell was wrong...they hadn't heard of it before...all they got from Roberts disease was that he couldn't leave his bedroom because he would die...and because thats all they knew, they couldn't cure him.

They tried methods, but they didn't really help either. They put him in a wheelchair and asked him to wheel out of the room, see if sitting down helped...it didnt. Robert's eyes rolled back and he collapsed on the wheelchair, back of his neck hanging behind the headrest lazily.

So yeah...when Robert was nearing his eighth birthday, he was permanently confined to his bedroom, stuck in there forever until the day he died. It wasnt good. At all. He felt bad that Aaron always came up every single day, ever since Aaron was seven himself. He remembered smiling when Aaron told him how cool it was that he had a disease all to himself.

"Hey maybe you've got Sugden Syphilis!"

"Do you even know what syphilis is?"

"No..."

Robert laughed and then bit his bottom lip. He noticed Aaron shiver ever since he came in from school and he smiled.

"Are you cold?"

"Yep. Do you have a heater or...?"

"No. Sorry. Come under with me if you want?"

"You sure?"

"Mhmm"

And...Aaron got under the covers with his best friend while Robert stuck the television on. At first it was some cartoon, but Aaron snatched the remote and flicked through until he stopped on some wrestling programme. 

"If I'm gonna sit here with you, I'm not going through ten hours of watching Lisa yell at Bart..."

Robert laughed and thanked Aaron who was...confused because why was he being thanked for insulting him? Robert only smiled and propped a pillow up behind his back with a sigh. He was so glad that Aaron never treated him differently....

Back to real time now, and Aaron was eighteen, midway through his exams and Robert? Well he was still stuck in his room wasnt he? He couldn't do normal things that a nineteen year old teen could do, go out and get drunk, stupidly do drugs and stay out until five in the morning with a million missed calls from his mum. He wanted to go to the bridge Aaron always talked about and watch the water ripple...

He wanted so many things...and yet he couldn't...

He was being a burden, a huge burden to Aaron. Aaron didnt even have any friends except from him and no wonder...probably because he was ALWAYS here...

"Rob? Oi, what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing. Just...shouldn't you be studying for your exams?"

Aaron made a face and then shook his head.

"I'll be fine. I'm in the middle of studying for my theory test though..."

"Aaron...you should go, study for your school exams..."

"Nah I'm alright. What you watching tonight?"

"Are you serious? Get the hint Aaron, piss off"

Aaron only glared at Robert, hard until the sick boy looked away with watery eyes. Aaron sighed and pulled him in for a hug which proved to be difficult when Robert kept pushing him away. Eventually, he did settle in Aarons arms and cried softly, Aaron constantly running a hand through Robert's hair.

"I'm so sick of this Aaron! I hate it! I hate this room! I hate the fact that I've only got four months left to be a teenager and...I haven't even done anything! I want to drink, I want to have a smoke and I want to have stupid one night stands where I get a hangover the next morning!"

He fell into another harsh fit of sobs and Aaron let him cry everything out onto his shoulder. His school blazer was getting ruined but he didnt care, his best friend came first over everything.

"I hate being such a burden to my mum...she works and works and for what? To go home to take care of her son who cant feed himself without dying?!"

Aaron shushed him and patted Robert's shaggy hair gently. He pulled away so he could be at level eye contact with his friend and he smiled.

"You are not a burden...you didn't ask for this Robert...and as for the teenage thing...you've definitely watched way too many of those shows..."

When Robert said nothing, Aaron used the sleeve of his blazer to wipe Robert's eyes before cupping his face.

"Hangovers suck by the way...I can punch you on the head if you still wanna experience it?"

Robert laughed and pulled his head out of Aaron's grip. He watched as Aaron peeled his blazer off and began digging through his school bag.

"What are you looking for?"

Aaron mumbled something incoherent, but then made a noise of achievement and pulled out a white stick.

"You said you wanted to try a smoke didnt you?"

"Yeah but..."

"But what? I cant let you drink or actually smoke...so have this instead"

Robert caught the stick from Aarons throw and sniffed it and screwed his eyes shut.

"Cannabis?"

Aaron nodded.

"Apparently...it can be medicinal. Who knows, it might help you. How'd you know it was that anyways?"

"Ross was smoking it outside the window. When I asked him what it was, he told me"

"Ahh...you know he got suspended today"

"Really? What did he do?!"

................

Around an hour later, the cannabis finally took effect. The window was wide open and Aaron was seated on the window ledge, his feet firmly pressed on the bed to balance whilst Robert was laid back against the headboard. They ended up talking about anything and everything and hit the giggles too. A story Aaron told Robert about his dog Clyde turned out to be the funniest thing ever.

Not that...they could actually remember why it was funny but Aaron was just so happy that Robert's mood had improved. Robert grabbed Aaron's schoolbag to see if he could find any sweets...which he did!

But he also found a magazine and pulled it out with a raised eyebrow. Aaron, who was distracted by something out the window, looked at Robert and widened his eyes and literally...fell right on top of Robert. Maybe it was the drugs that gave him slow reflexes, who knew? Because he ended up being a human starfish right on top of Robert, who was still holding the magazine.

When Aaron managed to push himself up, he blushed when realising his odd...position on Robert and he moved back until he was sat on Robert's ankles.

"That magazine ain't mine! Its Finns! I was..."

"Yeah right! Look at you blush!"

"I swear! It's not..."

Robert eyed the front page and turned it around so he could show Aaron it, or more specifically, show him the boxers model guy, with shaggy brown hair and a shiny six pack...

"Hes fit"

Aaron nearly fell over, but he snatched the magazine and frowned.

"Fit?! You think he's...well he is..."

Robert giggled and began to sing in a funny way.

"See? You think he's fit...you think hes fit..."

"Shut up...I think you're better looking though"

"Yeah?"

And they werent sure who pushed forwards first, but they ended up joined at the lips and Aaron ended up on his back and Robert had pulled his t-shirt off and...

"Wait...I'm not one of your...experiments am I?"

Robert shook his head.

"No, now hurry up and take your top off already"

For some reason, Aaron found that funny and Robert laughed along with him until he shucked Aaron's school trousers down and they werent laughing anymore.

When Aaron went home that night, he went straight to his room and fell asleep in his bed without changing. His mum complained the next morning about how she already stuck a washing on and Aaron reminded her it was Saturday and she simply nodded and left without apologising. Aaron changed, shoved his school uniform in the basket and found his mum downstairs looking through a photo album.

"What are you looking at that for?"

"Oh! Look...this was you when you were just born..."

The picture was kind of hard to make out but he pointed at his mums happy face and scoffed.

"You actually look young here..."

She swatted his hand away playfully and Aaron sat down beside her to look through it more. They laughed at the funny ones, chatted about the sad ones and Aaron's cheeks burned when he saw angew embarrassing ones...

Nobody wanted to see their mum smiling whilst she sat on a strippers knees at her hen party. She pointed at that one and Aaron frowned.

"Why are you smiling there when I look like I'm ready to die?!"

"Oh don't exaggerate! You were sick that day, really really sick...and I was just happy because you were too sick to play that stupid trumpet you got..."

"I could've been a famous musician..."

"With your playing? Absolutely not"

He elbowed her side playfully and she pointed at the photo beside it. Aaron looked absolutely fine...

"You wished so hard for the miracle man to come visit you and get rid of your sickness...that you woke up the next day completely fine. The doctors said it was a miraculous recovery....not for me though because you were back on that bloody trumpet..."

Aaron rolled his eyes and fished out his phone. There was a text from Robert, a long one of him apologising to Aaron if he ruined their friendship etc...

When Aaron called him, he wasnt expecting to hear Robert who sounded on the verge of crying again...he went on and on and on about him feeling like a burden to Aaron, to everyone and when Aaron mentioned that Christmas was only around the corner to try and cheer him up, Robert only agreed with a sad voice and apologised again for bothering him and hung up. 

Aaron hated this...he hated that the person he loved was sick forever...he hated that Robert of all people had to get it...hated that Robert had to go through it when he didnt deserve this! There were so many bad people out there who were nothing but plain evil, and they lived their lives as if they deserved them!

Robert wasnt bad. Robert wasnt evil...

Robert was perfect and in need of...in need of cheering up! Yes! He just needed to put Robert in the festive mood!

He stole an electronic christmas decoration and shoved it in his schoolbag along with lots and lots and lots of tinsel. He said his goodbyes to his mums and ran up the hill to home farm. 

He didnt bother knocking, just wandered in which...scared Sarah. She accidentally swore and then sighed.

"Sorry Aaron. Gave me a fright there...Robert's in the bath right now and I'm just on my way to work"

"Oh ok. Yeah that's fine, I'll wait for him"

"Ok then, tell him to call me if he needs anything...and can you do me a favour? Hes been kind of down recently...I'm a bit worried. Can you find out what's wrong?

Aaron only nodded and waited until she left. He went straight to Robert's room, saw the steam come out from underneath the bathroom door that was connected and he raised a closed fist, ready to knock when he froze.

He heard...Robert's quiet sniffles...quiet cries...

He lowered his hand and shook his head. No. Robert just needed to see that he could still live a normal life! So he unpacked everything, grabbed the cello tape and got to work.

.................

Aaron knew he wasn't artistic at all (unless spraypainting counted) and he knew this probably looked a mess, but he didn't care. Robert, now dressed and red faced, looked at Aaron and his room in awe. Aaron shoved a small plastic Christmas tree down on Robert's bedside table and pressed a button so it started playing Christmas music. Jingle bell rock to be more precise.

"Do you like it? You said you've never had a christmas tree before in your room so..."

"You did this?!"

Aaron nodded and Robert ran forwards for a hug. He kissed his cheek and then stood on his bed so he could touch the silver tinsel with his fingers...

"I love it..."

"Well...figured you could have...you know, a bit of festive in your life...I know you've been really down lately...and I'm sorry, but you can't fall into that cycle because once you start, you wont be able to stop..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Stop fucking apologising already..."

Aaron pulled Robert in for a hug and Robert only pressed his chin in Aaron's shoulders, squeezed his arms tighter and kept his eyes closed. If he was to die, he would love to die with Aaron's scent all over him, with Aaron's cheap cologne and...and mucky converse and...

"Where did you get all the decorations from anyways?"

"Hmm? Oh...from the Christmas bag. Mum won't even notice, dont worry"

...................

"You know, tomorrows Christmas..."

Robert nodded and kissed a lazy kiss on his boyfriends bare shoulder. Sarah was working late but Aaron reassured her that he was in the house and he could look after Robert...

Or in this case, Robert was looking after Aaron...naked...

"You should probably go then...you'll come by tomorrow though?"

Aaron nodded and yawned.

"Yeah. Of course I will...I swear, first thing tomorrow morning and I'll be right over. For now...lets just...sleep"

Robert only kissed the back of Aarons head and held in his tears, silently berating himself for doing this, being a stupid burden on Aaron...

When Aaron went home that night, he rolled his eyes at the sight of his mum passed out on the couch from her many festive drinks she had earlier. He realised she fell asleep holding the photo album and picked it up, only managing to snatch the piece of paper that had fell out. He realised it was the picture of his younger self, on the day of his miraculous recovery...

Turning it around, he was surprised even more to find writing on it and took it upstairs to his bedroom to get a better light. He frowned and dumped his jacket on the floor and flicked the lamp switch on.

'The Miracle Man'

Congratulations, you will be visited by the Miracle Man in your dreams tonight. To make this wish come true, please perform the following tasks.

1\. Light three candles  
2\. Blow them out exactly one minute before midnight  
3\. Repeat out loud what you wish for after blowing out the candles three times  
4\. Fall asleep and believe in your wish

Aaron scoffed but...what would be the harm in it? He lit three candles, blew them out as soon as his digital watch said 11:59 and repeated his wish three times. He looked around, expecting...something to happen, but nothing did. He really did hope this wish would come true but...oh well. He fell asleep before he could ponder on this anymore with the picture underneath his pillow. Unbeknown to him, the picture underneath his pillow had faded into nothing but gold dust...

..........................

Robert had a strange dream. He had a dream that Aaron had come to visit him, had come to lean over him on the bed and kiss him until he was breathless. Then...if he remembered right, Aaron stopped kissing him and raised both of his clenched fists and slammed them down on his stomach. His ribs didnt hurt when he did that which was surprising because instead of hurting, they felt...amazing!

Then Aaron had repeated something three times but he couldn't understand and...and he faded! He faded away into gold dust!

"Congratulations Robert...you've been visited by the Miracle Man..."

He spun around to see who had spoken there, but when he did, everything suddenly got brighter and brighter until his eyes felt like they were going to burn and then?

Darkness.

Utter darkness...

He woke with a gasp, his hands clenching his t-shirt as his cold sweat went right through and he rushed off of his bed and ran to his drawers to grab another t-shirt. He looked at the sun outside, barely risen...

Today was Christmas...Christmas day...

And he felt weird. Odd weird...happy weird...healthy weird.

He didnt feel groggy...he didnt feel tired...

He opened his bedroom door with a held breath and stepped out. Nothing. He took another step out. Nothing again.

His lungs didnt feel like they were ready to explode...his brain didnt fuzz...his stomach didnt squirm around uncomfortably...

He was fine!

He turned around and stepped back into his bedroom and shut the door. He had four months left of being a teenager...he wanted to experience this the real way!

By opening the window full and sneaking out of that instead.

...........

Aaron, meanwhile, had barely managed to escape the clutches of his mum. She watched him open his presents excitedly and then when their family Christmas present session was done, he turned to leave.

And then Charity had walked through and demanded that everyone sings a Christmas Carol on the karaoke....

So he did 'White Christmas' 'Last Christmas' and then bolted off. He was walking through the village, the place being completely empty on the special occasion and froze when he saw a familiar figure standing on...on the roof of the Mill!

Blonde hair, white t-shirt...

"Robert!"

Oh god...was he going to jump?! He couldn't! Aaron was gonna puke! He thought Robert was fine! He didnt think Robert was actually...suicidal!

But...how was he outside?

Robert however, had spotted Aaron from the roof and he waved.

"Aaron! The Miracle Man! The Miracle Man came! I'm fine! I'm actually fine!"

Aaron let out a disbelieving laugh and shoved both of his hands on the back of his head. Robrt was...cured? He wasn't sure how but...he was cured!

And...seeing Robert stand on the roof of the Mill with the biggest smile ever, his hand waving frantically and laughing loudly? It was the best sight Aaron could have ever seen, a Christmas miracle indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?


End file.
